8 October, 2014 - New Tires, Mushrooms, More Canning, Washing Clothes, Damaged Chains

We've had some of that beautiful fall weather that makes us wish it would stay this way all year long.  Nights have been in the upper thirties and low forties with sunshiny days in the sixties and seventies.

I mounted the new tires on the Expedition this week.  I finally got to try out my new electric impact gun.  It is heavier and doesn't have the power of my air powered impact guns but it did okay overall.  It's a lot easier to use an extension cord than an air hose so I'm happy with it so far.

The tires on the Expedition have 17 inch rims.  They're a little more than my little tire machine is designed for but it got the job done. I really had to crank on the bead remover though.  It took me about 90 minutes to do all four tires.  It would have cost me about $50.00 to have them done at a tire store.

Susan finished canning the apples and is almost finished canning carrots.  Now I need to fill my big game tags and she can get busy canning meat!  She's smiling at Scott being silly on the swing in front of her.

He uses his swing in about any position imaginable. Here he was being cute for the camera.

I hit a rock while cutting firewood last week.  I don't know if you've ever hit a rock with a chain saw but it really messes up the edges of the teeth.  If you look closely you can see that the front of the tooth is roughly beveled by the rock.

This tooth not only had the bevel but the rock chipped a section off the top of the tooth.  You have to do a lot of filing to get a chain in this condition sharp again.  The teeth are already worn so by the time this chain is sharp again it will be retired and saved for use when cutting tree stumps off close to the ground.

We winterized the automatic washer the last time we used it so we are now back to doing the wash by hand.  The wringer is from Lehman's as is the "rapid washer" in the wash tub.  The tubs were purchased at a yard sale many years ago. The frame everything sits on is an old ladder that's been nailed to the trees.  It works pretty good.

We went wood cutting again today and found some mushrooms in the woods. These are various kinds of Boletes.  We have tons of them in the woods this time of year.  We found some shaggy manes last time we were out.  They're very nice addition to many dishes.

It was a slow afternoon cutting firewood.  We only found a couple of trees within cable range of the road so we only cut about half a load this afternoon. We did a lot of walking looking for dead trees near the road.

 

Tomorrow I'll need to sharpen chains and get the saws ready for the next rip to the woods.  I'll also need to split and stack what we cut today.